The Lipizzans peek over their stable doors. Photo / Estelle Sarney
The Lipizzans peek over their stable doors. Photo / Estelle Sarney
Estelle Sarney is introduced to the noble stallions who are hand-picked and trained to perform at the 450-year old Spanish Riding Centre.
A large, dark eye watches me from behind black bars. The stallion's white mane falls down his classically curved neck, his coat a pale mottled grey. Pluto Fantascais in the first stall on the left as I enter an enclosed avenue of stables at the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. Each of his 18 Lipizzan neighbours looks similar to him - not particularly tall at about 15 hands high (about 157cm), but strong with broad, muscular shoulders and rump, a wide chest, and a barrel-like stomach. They are in varying stages of turning colour, from the dark brown or black they are born with, to white by the time they are 6 to 10 years old. The last stall contains the "lucky black sheep" - a Lipizzan who has retained his dark colour into adulthood and is considered a stable's lucky charm, even if he doesn't perform.
The Spanish Riding School, Vienna. Photo / Estelle Sarney
The atmosphere is quiet and calm, prompting members of our group to whisper their greetings to the horses. We're not allowed to touch or photograph them. We move along, taking in the name of each horse, a combination of the names of his sire and mare - Conversano Dagmar is born of the Conversano stallion dynasty, by the mare Dagmar. Two stallions look like they are kissing through the bars, their teeth bared - our guide says this is a sign of affection "but like brothers it usually turns into an argument".
Our behind-the-scenes visit to the riding school is an optional excursion on our Avalon Waterways cruise ship, the Luminary, as part of its Active Discovery voyage down the Danube. Rather than watch one of the weekend performances or daily trainings, we chose to get up close and personal with some of the 72 horses in the school.
Our tour begins in a grand room in the school's base in the former Imperial Palace. We learn the history of the 450-year-old school while a video shows horses performing in the Renaissance tradition of the haute ecole, or high school, movements of classical dressage.
The Habsburg emperor, King Ferdinand I, spent his childhood in Spain, and later brought some of the horses he admired there back to Austria to found the Spanish Riding School.
The horses were intended to help soldiers in battle, but were never used for this purpose and instead became part of ceremonial displays, a tradition that continues to this day. In 1580, a stud was established at Lipizza (hence Lipizzan), now in Slovenia. When Austria lost the territory after World War I, the stud was moved to Piber in southeast Austria.
Fritz the stables cat. Photo / Estelle Sarney
About 45 foals are born at the stud each year. Only stallions are selected for training as the moves required are derived from natural stallion behaviours used to attract mates and fight for supremacy. They start their education at a training centre in Heldenberg, about 50km from Vienna, from the age of 4. The top trainees become part of the Spanish Riding School. Those left behind are sold to horse lovers all over the world. The horses chosen for the school are worked and ridden in performances by 18 riders, for whom selection and training is just as rigorous. Anyone can apply, you don't have to be a prize-winning rider; simply aged between 16 and 23, about 170cm tall, athletic, with long legs to get around those barrel bellies, and with some basic riding skills. The school prefers to teach riders from scratch rather than correct bad habits. But only four trainee riders are accepted in any five-year period, and the full programme takes eight to 12 years (in 2008, Hannah Zeitlhofer became the first woman to be accepted, and became qualified to perform publicly only in 2016). But once you're in you have a job for life - the longest serving rider recently retired, aged 72.
Similarly, Lipizzan horses mature slowly and are active longer than many other breeds.
Most of the school's horses continue to perform well into their 20s and live into their 30s - their eldest, Neapolitano Nima I, is 38 and has only recently retired to the "holiday farm" at Heldenberg.
After the history lesson, we are shown the Summer Riding School, a quiet and shady courtyard of the Imperial Palace, which houses the world's largest oval horse walker, and the Winter Riding School, a gem of baroque architecture built by Emperor Charles VI in 1729 to enable performances in all weathers, and where the weekend shows and daily trainings take place.
We are led to the stables in the Stallburg, a Renaissance building which is part of the palace. A beautiful arcade courtyard is lined with stables, the horses leaning their heads out their doors as if welcoming the latest group of visitors.
We finish our tour in the impressive tack room, the walls hung with dozens of spotless saddles and bridles on brass horsehead holders.
As we leave, Fritz the stables cat waddles over for a pat, rolling on to his back to show off a belly fat with mice caught in last night's hunting. He seems to think he's lord of the manor.
Pluto Fantasca, and the rest of his noble companions, would advise him differently, but you sense there's no need. These are horses very sure of their place in the world.
The Spanish Riding School, Vienna. Photo / Estelle Sarney
CHECKLIST
Details helloworld has an 8-night Avalon Waterways Active Discovery on the Danube river cruise for $4825pp, twin share for departures between June and September. This includes a bonys $1000 air credit per couple.
